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While traveling in Pennsylvania recently, I stopped off in
Pittsburgh to visit Nick Vacco, a serial entrepreneur.

Vacco’s 13-year-old company, Detail King, is an auto-detailer training
company. Vacco got his start in college when he ran an
auto-detailing business out of the trunk of his car.

While touring his training facility, I overheard a student from
Tampa, Fla., ask Vacco how to get past a concern she has about
hiring and training employees, sensing that some will turn around
and run their own auto-detailing business in direct competition
with hers.

It’s a good question, and Nick had a number of thoughts on it
worth sharing:

Paranoia will destroy ya: Don’t assume that a
job applicant wants anything more than just a job. Otherwise,
you’re operating from a position of paranoia, Vacco says, and you
can’t run a business from a standpoint of fear. Besides, if you
insist on hiring people with no ambition, good luck with that.
It’ll be reflected in every task they do.

Use a noncompete agreement: You could ask new
hires to sign a noncompete
agreement, and if your state enforces such agreements,
you can make signing one a nonnegotiable condition for working at
your business. But check with a lawyer first, because holding an
employee to it can be a balancing act between an employer’s right
to protect her own interests and a worker’s right to set up his
own shop.

Listen carefully during the interview: You want
to hire the right people -- people ready to get down to work, not
people looking to start their own business. Ask prospective
employees where they see themselves in three years. If they say
they want to start their own business in your vertical, it should
give you pause. But if they say they want to be working for your
company with more responsibility and money, then you may want to
seriously consider handing them a time card.

Competition isn’t always a bad thing:
Competition pushes us to do better, Vacco says. And in this
socially-charged marketplace where consumers are constantly
sharing their views and opinions of the businesses they interact
with, you have the opportunity to gain critical insight into what
it is your competition is doing well, and not so well, just by
listening. Take that information and use it to differentiate your
business and do a better job.